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Shrink Plastic Kingdom Hearts Wayfinder!

Update 8/31/2012: I made some more printables in different colors. Check them out here!

A few days ago, I decided to fiddle with shrink plastic again. Though I have made charms by drawing on the plastic with pens or markers, lately I’ve taken to making vector images in Inkscape, printing them onto this white shrink film, and cutting them out. It lets me make much more intricate designs, and I get to keep my Inkscape skills fresh, so it’s a double win.

This time around, instead of something Whovian, I went with a Kingdom Hearts design. I’ve been meaning to make myself a Wayfinder based on Aqua’s from Birth by Sleep for a while, so I looked up a good picture and got to work. Here’s the image my design was based on.

And here’s my actual Wayfinder.

I know the gradient is going the wrong way, but I actually like the way all of the lines point to the center, so I chose to leave it that way. I printed the Wayfinder out in individual pieces, tied the star parts together with brown embroidery floss, and glued the Keyblade Master symbol on top of everything with a few drops of super glue. It’s not the sturdiest thing in the world, but it’s only for decorative purposes, so that’s okay.

If you like my version of Aqua’s Wayfinder and would like one of your own, feel free to download the image below and print it out on some shrink plastic. Don’t forget to punch all of the holes you see in my finished product out before baking unless you want to drill them out afterward. Also, this might seem like common sense, but just in case: don’t tie your pieces together until after you’ve shrunken them.

Just print a full-page copy of the image, cut everything out, and shrink it down in a regular oven. If you’d like to see a printable in different colors, let me know in the comments and I’ll gladly make one and upload it.

As a bonus, here’s a picture of my kitty giving the Wayfinder her official seal of approval. It could also just be that she likes being a photo crasher. Either way, it’s cute.

In the first paragraph of the post, I linked to some shrink plastic that is made for printers. I have the kind of printer that grabs your paper and wraps it around from the bottom to feed it through, and I’ve never had any problems using this stuff with it. I’m sure there’s official Shrinky Dink branded plastic that you can buy to print on, but I wouldn’t recommend putting it through your printer if it doesn’t explicitly state that it’s for inkjet printers.